Ron's voice echoed through the empty bus, and Illya, standing beside him, immediately fell into deep thought.
After hearing everything, she quickly entered an analytical state, evaluating whether Prince Ron's proposal was truly feasible.
Dozens of seconds later, Illya confirmed that, at least in theory, this plan was indeed quite effective.
Compared to her original idea—"letting every household own an Element Bus"—this was far more realistic.
The manufacturing cost of a single Element Bus, excluding the price of Element Potato, was roughly 100–200 gold coins.
In other words, just the eight Element Bus sent to Tansen City had a total cost of around 1,000 gold coins.
Eight hundred Element Bus would cost 100,000 gold coins.
And even that might not be enough for a single city's residents.
While 100,000 gold coins wasn't an unbearable burden for Ron anymore, it wasn't something he could simply throw away as a public welfare project either.
Even if sold at cost, ordinary families wouldn't be able to afford Element Bus.
In the end, they would only become new toys for the nobility.
That would completely go against Illya's original intention.
But Ron's solution seemed to neatly resolve all of these issues.
"Your Highness Ron, will this… bus charge a fee?" Illya asked.
Since the bus was meant for shared use, selling it wasn't the issue.
That meant cost recovery would still be a problem.
"Of course we'll charge a fee—we're not running a charity," Ron shrugged, tapping the coin box he had installed near the front entrance. "One copper coin per ride. Most commoners can afford that."
"If it's just commuting, that's only two extra copper coins a day. And with the time they save, they can do other things."
"It's basically trading two copper coins for time—I think at least some people will be willing."
Ron could already imagine that even if buses were introduced, they wouldn't immediately become popular.
For commoners, saving two copper coins was still meaningful.
And many people didn't live far from their workplaces, so taking a bus wouldn't always be necessary.
But for Ron, this was just an experiment.
Compared to promoting Element Bus to every household, placing a few buses in the city drastically reduced costs.
A bus like this costs about 500–600 gold coins.
For a town the size of Tansen City, two routes—one horizontal and one vertical—would be more than enough.
A cost of 500 gold coins translates to 5 million copper coins, or 5 million rides.
In Ron's previous world, buses averaged around 2,400 rides per day.
At the start, this world definitely wouldn't reach that level, but if it became popular, 1,000 rides per day might be possible.
By that calculation, it would take over ten years to recover the cost…
This was bound to be a losing business.
But it was still far more practical than directly promoting Element Bus.
A few hundred or a thousand gold coins—Ron could afford that.
Once profits from the hot pot restaurant, Element Cards, and various potions are picked up, investments of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of gold coins would gradually become manageable.
If he spent that money on himself, he wouldn't be able to use it all in multiple lifetimes.
But if he invested it in developing his territory, it would be well worth it.
And once Tansen City showed clear results, other factions would grow curious and start imitating—wouldn't they have to purchase similar products like buses from him?
If he couldn't make money from commoners, he could make it from wealthy nobles.
Although those nobles probably wouldn't use buses for public transport, they would certainly be willing to buy Element Bus for transporting manpower, food, and mineral resources.
If an Element Bus cost 100–200 gold coins to produce, selling it for 300 wasn't unreasonable, right?
And he'd even include a free batch of Element Potatoes.
But after a few months, once the Element Potatoes rotted, they'd have to buy new ones from him.
Otherwise, they'd have to spend heavily on Element Stones—a highly consumable resource.
In terms of cost-performance, nothing could beat Element Potatoes.
This might eventually affect the Element Stone market, but that would be a long time from now—and Ron was confident he'd have gained enough influence by then.
At the very least, no one would dare provoke him easily.
Ever since learning he might be forced to become a territorial count, Ron's mindset had gradually changed.
In the past, he preferred to take things easy unless the system issued tasks with plant rewards.
But last winter, a main quest to open a branch flower shop in the Royal Capital forced him into the political mess there.
He had originally thought he could leave after opening the shop, but the system introduced a spatial transmission channel, tying him permanently to the Royal Capital.
Of course, as long as he stayed in the City of Chaos, his personal life wasn't greatly affected.
But subsequent Element Card tasks deepened his ties to the Royal Capital.
By now, Ron had begun to understand—regardless of whether he wanted the throne, if he wanted to protect himself and those around him, he needed a solid foundation of power.
If the territorial count matter was confirmed, then Tansen City would become his primary focus.
The land around the Royal Capital had long been divided.
The City of Chaos, being jointly governed by four races, wasn't suitable as a personal power base—but it was an excellent trade hub.
With the spatial transmission channel, that wasn't an issue.
"Your Highness Ron, where are we going now?"
Illya's voice snapped Ron back to reality.
"Oh, we're heading to the convent outside the city to pick up the nuns for shopping—and test the bus along the way."
Ron replied, "Go find a seat and experience it yourself. Give me feedback when we get back."
"Alright."
Illya nodded and walked toward the back, choosing a seat in the rear corner.
The last row was elevated, offering a full view of the bus interior—perfect for observation.
Looking at the layout, Illya couldn't help but admire Ron's earlier proposal.
What kind of thinking did he usually have to come up with something so practical?
This must have come from a deep understanding of commoners' daily lives.
If someone like him became emperor of the Human Empire, he would be far more suitable than the others.
Unfortunately… that didn't seem to be his ambition.
Shaking off her thoughts, Illya focused on experiencing the ride.
Meanwhile, Ron sat in the driver's seat, gripping the steering wheel as he headed toward the convent.
To be honest, in his previous world, Ron had barely driven even a small car. He'd only gotten a license so he could occasionally drive his parents home during holidays.
And now, in another world, he was driving a bus.
Fortunately, as a third-tier warrior, his control over his body was far beyond before.
And since they were driving through open wilderness, it wasn't particularly difficult. After a few hundred meters, he had already gotten the hang of it.
The bus rolled over uneven terrain, causing some bumps.
But after Ron turned the knob for the wind-element magic array—the "Lightness Array"—the vehicle became lighter, and the bumps were greatly reduced.
To Ron, buses weren't anything special.
But creating a magic-powered bus in another world filled him with a strong sense of accomplishment.
Although it used a steering wheel and an "accelerator," its fundamental operating principle was completely different.
In his previous world, a bus was an industrial machine.
Here, it was truly a magical machine.
Aside from basic mechanics like wheels, everything relied on magic arrays engraved by Illya.
Ron had wanted to incorporate more mechanical structures to reduce effort.
But as a liberal arts student, he did not know that area.
Being able to clearly explain the concept of a bus was already impressive.
Thankfully, Illya was extremely talented in this field—especially in creatively applying subtle magic arrays.
Thus, a partnership naturally formed: Ron provided ideas, and Illya implemented them.
The fusion of modern concepts and magical arrays created brilliant results.
The bus gradually left the experimental zone and approached the nuns' plantation area.
The Mimic Grass farm here had expanded several times over. If not for distributing wands engraved with the Plant Growth Spell, the nuns' mahjong time would've been drastically reduced.
It was around 4 PM.
Every day at this time, over a dozen nuns would head into the city to buy ingredients and daily necessities.
Previously, Guy would arrange for carriage drivers to take them.
Today, after Ron's prior notice, the drivers happily took a paid day off.
As a result, the nuns were puzzled as to why the Bus hadn't arrived.
A few minutes later, they spotted a metallic monster approaching from another direction.
"Look! What is that?!"
"Back up! Stay alert!"
The nuns tensed, thinking it was some unknown creature.
But as it got closer, one sharp-eyed nun exclaimed in surprise, "Isn't that His Highness Ron? Did that thing eat him?!"
"…That doesn't look likely," another nun said, eyeing Ron waving behind the transparent windshield.
When the bus stopped in front of them, the nuns still cautiously backed away over ten meters.
Ron found it amusing but understandable.
He turned the knob for the front door.
The door slid open.
At the same time, a cool female voice echoed:
"Dear passengers, please hold the handrails when boarding. After inserting your fare, please move inward. Watch your step."
The nuns exchanged glances.
Only after Ron waved them over did they approach.
"Come on board, I'll take you into the city today," Ron smiled. "Don't forget to pay—one copper coin each."
After confirming it was safe, the nuns' curiosity took over.
"Hurry up and get on!"
The first few nuns boarded, peering into the empty interior with fascination before eagerly dropping copper coins into the box.
They were clearly excited.
Unlike commoners who might hesitate over spending a coin, the nuns found it novel and fun.
As the crisp clinks of coins echoed, Ron closed the door.
The voice sounded again:
"Dear passengers, please be careful as the doors close. Hold the handrails as the vehicle starts."
Sitting in the back, Illya heard her own voice again.
She turned toward the window, her cheeks flushing slightly in embarrassment.
At the time of recording, she hadn't thought much of it.
But hearing it now in person felt incredibly awkward.
She should've let Edith record it instead…
Thinking that her voice might be used in more buses, Illya buried her face in her hands in regret.
When they got back, she had to bring this up.
Yes—her voice was too cold. Edith was clearly more suitable… she convinced herself.
Meanwhile, the nuns gathered at the front, chattering and bombarding Ron with questions.
"If you have questions, go sit down first," Ron said while steering. "Illya, who built this, is in the back—you can ask her."
"I'm driving—don't distract me."
"And after shopping, each of you write a 100-word ride report."
The nuns agreed and moved to the back, surrounding Illya with questions.
Their gossip instincts were clearly maxed out.
After only a few serious questions, they shifted to asking about Illya and Ron's relationship.
Illya, however, answered calmly, "The Elven Saintess is forbidden from marrying outside her race."
"That just means you can't marry," the nuns teased.
Fortunately, they didn't push too far and returned to asking about the bus's purpose.
Illya repeated Ron's explanation, leaving them stunned.
Unlike Illya, who could grasp the concept easily, the nuns needed time to process it.
Providing near-free services to commoners seemed unnecessary—or even foolish—to most people in this world.
If it weren't Ron's decision, they would've already rejected the idea.
The bus drove into the suburbs, attracting curious onlookers.
At the city gate, the guards might've sounded the alarm if they hadn't seen Ron driving.
After confirming it was safe, they let him pass.
Still, two patrol squads followed closely behind—more out of instinctive caution than suspicion.
Pedestrians quickly stepped aside, staring in amazement.
Ron watched with a grin, then suddenly turned a knob mischievously.
A moment later, Illya's cool voice echoed outside:
"There are thousands of roads—safety comes first. If driving is irregular, your loved ones will be left in tears."
In the back, Illya covered her face in overwhelming embarrassment as she saw people's shocked expressions.
She had already thought Ron's smile was strange during the recording.
If she had known this would happen, she never would've agreed…
Of course, she didn't realize Ron's strange smile was because of the phrase itself.
Under the crowd's astonished gazes, the bus stopped at the marketplace.
The nuns got off, finished shopping in about ten minutes, and returned.
This time, without prompting, they eagerly dropped coins into the box, clearly enjoying themselves.
The bus started again, exiting the City of Chaos.
Watching the metal monster leave, the guards finally relaxed—though their curiosity only grew.
They had heard Ron created a Magic Battle Arena in the Royal Capital and hosted a Magic Duel tournament.
And now this…
It was all baffling.
Ron didn't mind.
After dropping the nuns back at the convent and reminding them about the ride reports, he drove the bus back to his private experimental zone.